TEACHING + LEARNING SPECIALIST
I have had the opportunity to study teaching and learning throughout graduate school, to hold a postdoctoral fellowship in the scholarship of teaching and learning, and to have worked alongside and collaborated with some extraordinary experts in teaching and learning.
I coordinated the Teaching and Learning Grants Program at the University of Calgary, allowing me to work with and be inspired by the boundless innovations and imaginations of educators and students across various faculties, disciplines, and across campus.
I have worked with police, healthcare, government, sexual assault centres, and other human service providers in the development and redesign of accessible, engaging, and trauma-informed educational material.
University of Calgary | 2019
*Co-facilitated with Haboun Bair, Learning & Instructional Design Specialist.
Interactive workshop presented during Teaching Days at the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning. Calgary, AB.
The workshop description read as follows:
Ever wish you were more creative? That your teaching and learning were more playful and engaging? This interactive workshop will introduce you to a variety of accessible and practical tools to help infuse you and your students with a playful and creative energy that inspires engagement and collaboration. You’ll be exposed to a host of active learning practices, from funny icebreakers and unconventional group-work exercises to unusual online activities, leaving you with a range of ideas you can use to help develop your own creative teaching and learning toolbox.
University of Calgary | 2019
*Co-facilitated with Dr. Leslie Reid, Vice-Provost of Teaching and Learning; Dr. Wendy Benoit, Associate Dean Teaching and Learning; Dr. Dawn Johnston, Associate Dean Teaching and Learning; Dr. Natasha Kenny, Senior Director, Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning; and Dr. Lorelli Nowell, Eyes High Postdoctoral Scholar.
Interactive workshop presented for the Leadership Academy. Calgary, AB.
University of Calgary | 2018
*Co-facilitated with Dr. Kim Grant and Dr. Lorelli Nowell, Postdoctoral Scholars.
Interactive workshop presented at the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning. Calgary, AB.
The workshop description read as follows:
Are you interested in growing your teaching and learning practices and your confidence in delivering them? Are you curious about how to construct, plan for, and carry out SoTL research? You are welcome to attend our Learning Laboratory in which we will demonstrate various interactive teaching and learning activities and how to study their efficacy. Staff, faculty, and students alike are invited to attend.
We will demonstrate how “teachable moments” inspired by headline-capturing current (and sometimes, controversial) events, can become “learnable moments” – moments where things that go on outside the classroom can be brought in to facilitate learning inside of it...and how these moments can be studied. Building upon what has become known as the #MeToo Movement, we will examine how controversial issues like sexual assault can be sensitively, respectively, and critically taken up in post-secondary classrooms.
Participants should be aware that this Learning Laboratory will be about sexual violence and should attend with their self-care in mind. A list of on and off-campus resources relevant to sexual violence will be provided to all participants.
You are invited to attend this teaching and learning event that doubles as a SoTL research site. The purpose of this study is to increase participants’ confidence in their teaching and learning practices by building classroom community and incorporating current events and controversial issues in student learning activities. Throughout the event, you will be offered a backstage view of a SoTL study, since we will describe how this research was thought up, planned, and is being carried out.
University of Calgary | 2018
*Co-facilitated with Sam Hester, Graphic Recorder.
Interactive workshop presented at Teaching Days at the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning. Calgary, AB.
The workshop description read as follows:
This workshop will inquire about and build upon participants’ interest in graphic recording, offer participants various graphic recording tools and techniques as well as time to engage in and reflect upon graphic recording practices, and invite participants’ insights and ideas about the use of graphic recording in teaching and learning. By the end of this workshop, participants should be able to identify at least one use of graphic recording in their teaching and/or learning practices, and draw at least one concept that could form part of a visual icon library.
University of Calgary | 2018
Interactive workshop presented at the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning. Calgary, AB.
University of Calgary | 2019, 2018, 2017
Interactive workshop presented during the Fall and Winter semesters at the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning. Calgary, AB.
University of Calgary | 2019, 2018, 2017
I facilitated this series of 6 interactive workshops, toward a "SoTL Foundations Badge" as part of our Teaching and Learning Certificate, each Fall and Winter semester at the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning. Calgary, AB.
The Badge is described as follows:
Description
The SoTL Foundations Development Program for Postdoctoral Scholars invites students to join discussion-based sessions focused on brief foundational SoTL readings, participate in their choice of workshops and draft a preliminary SoTL plan. Students in this program will learn about scholarly, evidence-based approaches to student learning and teaching, and will have the opportunity to reflect and build upon their own teaching and learning practices.
This badge is part of the Postdoctoral Scholars Certificate in University Teaching and Learning program.
Learning Outcomes
- Engage in collaborative, critically reflective conversations with colleagues to explore current issues, theories and research in postsecondary education.
- Articulate a research question and develop a plan to conduct a SoTL (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning) project.
More information can be found here: https://taylorinstitute.ucalgary.ca/postdocs/certificate
University of Calgary | 2019, 2018, 2017
I facilitated this series of 6 interactive workshops, toward a "SoTL Foundations Badge" as part of our Teaching and Learning Certificate, each Fall and Winter semester at the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning. Calgary, AB.
The Badge is described as follows:
Description
The SoTL Foundations Development Program for Graduate Students invites students to join discussion-based sessions focused on brief foundational SoTL readings, participate in their choice of workshops and draft a preliminary SoTL plan. Students in this program will learn about scholarly, evidence-based approaches to student learning and teaching, and will have the opportunity to reflect and build upon their own teaching and learning practices.
This badge is part of theGraduate Students Certificate in University Teaching and Learning program.
Learning Outcomes
- Engage in collaborative, critically reflective conversations with colleagues to explore current issues, theories and research in postsecondary education.
- Articulate a research question and develop a plan to conduct a SoTL (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning) project.
More information can be found here: https://taylorinstitute.ucalgary.ca/gradstudents/certificate
University of Calgary | 2017
Interactive presentation offered as part of Course Design at the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning. Calgary, AB.
University of Calgary | 2016
Interactive presentation in Course Design at the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning. Calgary, AB.
University of Calgary | 2016
Interactive presentation in Course Design at the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning. Calgary, AB.
Ethical-mindedness is an approach to research design that explicitly incorporates ethical thinking into the process of SoTL project development. We will introduce the concept of ethical mindedness to those who are new to SoTL research, or those whose disciplinary expertise does not typically involve research with human subjects. By the end of the workshop participants should be able to describe at least two strategies for ethical practice that can be used by SoTL researchers and effectively apply ethical principles to the design of their own SoTL research projects.
Presentation delivered with Jenny Godley and Lisa Fedoruk.
Presentation delivered at the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference (2019). October 2019. Atlanta, GA.
What happens when disciplinary experience is perceived as an obstacle to collaborative, multidisciplinary learning? In this interactive session, we present unconventional SoTL research as a case study in which disciplinary experience was understood by participants as a hindrance to multidisciplinary collaboration. We discuss how these atypical learners unpacked their siloed disciplinary work and came to see cross-disciplinary commonalities where differences were once perceived. We will work with participants to explore and develop facilitation tools that enhance experiential learning possibilities in atypical learning communities. Specifically, we speak to how playful facilitation of “safe” space (Kisvalvi & Oliver, 2015), the deployment foundational ideas in teaching and learning (e.g., “threshold concepts” and “signature pedagogies”) as analytic instruments (Meyer & Land, 2003; Shulman, 2005), and creative, material tasks facilitate cross-disciplinary conversation, community-building, and collaboration. We describe how postsecondary students engaged in interdisciplinary studies (including social work, nursing, medicine, sociology, and education) and beyond might benefit from our study’s outcomes, and how it more broadly inform instructors’ decision-making around experiential learning practices in areas fraught with siloed work (Carey, 2007).
Presentation delivered with AnneMarie Dorland, PhD.
Presentation delivered at Exploring Experiential Learning: Conference on Postsecondary Learning and Teaching. May 2019. Calgary, AB.
Scholarship relying on student research participants faces unique challenges when it comes ensuring that it reflects core research ethics principles of respect for persons and justice. While research ethics is most commonly understood to be about minimizing potential physical or psychological harm, in educational environments such things as privacy rights and freedom from undue influence can often be just as important. They are at the same time often difficult to accommodate but best practices have evolved and will be included in the discussion.
Presentation delivered with John Ellard, Chair of the Conjoint Faculties Research Ethics Board, Lauren McDougall, Senior Research Ethics Analyst, and Lisa Fedoruk, PhD and author of the "Ethics in SoTL: Key Principles and Strategies for Ethical Practice" Taylor Institute Guide.
Presentation delivered at Exploring Experiential Learning: Conference on Postsecondary Learning and Teaching. May 2019. Calgary, AB.
Designing professional learning and development opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars has many logistical challenges as they often have competing demands on their time and less control over their schedules. One solution to this challenge focuses on flexibility of opportunities and the development of programming that allows participants to choose from a menu of options. The positive participation and feedback collected from our university’s teaching development workshops indicates this approach is successful. Since introducing cohort-based opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, however, we have seen both a marked increase in participation as well as clear signs of nascent communities of learning. We believe that a number of factors have contributed to the formation of collegial relationships among graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, leading to “significant conversations” and new learning networks. The academic experiences of both groups are often characterized by isolation and liminality, and cohorts provide opportunities for likeminded people to gather around SoTL literature and teaching and learning issues. Through establishing peer connections and engaging in collaborative work, participants begin to form clusters of influence both within and across their departmental borders. By developing trust and engaging in activities such as peer teaching, graduate students and postdoctoral scholars participate in making teaching and critical reflection public, shared activities. These collaborative and reciprocal learning communities can reduce isolation and enhance socialization, knowledge attainment, and skills development.
Presentation delivered with Lorelli Nowell, PhD, Kim Grant, PhD, & Carol Berenson, PhD. Presentation delivered at the 15th Annual International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference. October 2018. Bergen, Norway.
We discuss the importance of creating safe classroom communities to foster environments that positively engage students in learning about sensitive topics. We deconstruct our learning experiences in a Special Topics in Sociology course reflecting on how risk, vulnerability, and community interact to create authentic learning experiences.
Presentation delivered with M. Waldman, C. Mercado, and D. Barnes.
Presentation devilered at Students as Creators, Drivers, Innovators and Collaborators: Conference on Postsecondary Learning and Teaching. May 2018. University of Calgary.
Broadly speaking, postdoctoral scholars engage in mentored research and scholarly training for the purpose of developing their intellectual independence, academic excellence, and entrepreneurial skills (Jadavji et al., 2016). To support the University of Calgary’s goal of strengthening development opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning recently took a bold step by investing in three new postdoctoral positions. In these roles, we — the three new postdoctoral scholars — lead initiatives, programs, and research related to educational development and scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) while helping to raise the profile and improve the quality of teaching and learning in the postsecondary sector (Kenny et al., 2017). As postdoctoral scholars in non-traditional fields, we find ourselves working on the edge of new territory – a space full of possibility, and sometimes, challenge. The novel positions that we occupy afford us a unique opportunity to reflect upon this liminal space in a collaborative approach to self-study. Self-study promotes reflective engagement, and our collaborative approach seeks insights and experiences relevant to other postdoctoral scholars (see, for example, the SoTL self-study by Foot, Crowe, Tollafield, & Allan, 2014), to educational developers, to SoTL practitioners, and to institutions interested in supporting postdocs and advancing collaborative research and inquiry in these areas. In this session, we will describe our collaborative self-study methods as well as what we are learning about our own formation at the intersections of educational development and SoTL (Felten & Chick, in press).
Presentation delivered with Kim Grant and Lorelli Nowell.
Presentation delivered at the Educational Developers Caucus. February 2018.